Gretchen Koch

A costly signal, in evolutionary terms, is a hard-to-fake sign of expenditure of resources for the purpose of demonstrating mate value-- the classic example is a male peacock's tail. In terms of human behavior it could be any display of exertion or expenditure performed for a variety of reasons, but especially to vividly display commitment to a group or an ideal. A blog, by contrast, is practically the definition of cheap signaling: a place where ideas can be freely and rashly expressed without necessarily indicating commitment to anything in particular, but the messages are conveyed nonetheless.

Gretchen's cheap signals on religion, cognition, science, feminism, sustainability, social justice issues, gaming, pop culture, moral psychology and a whole lot more can be found here. She has a PhD in the cognitive science of religion but should not be considered an expert on anything.